Do you know how expensive even tier 3 storage is? Even with economies of scale there is no way you could get 2 tb of "cloud" storage for the equivalent of a 2tb external HD. What do you think their motive is?
When the "networked society" is mature enough to allow the average user to access their own data on a home machine then it will be something.
I was referring to EATB’s assertion you don’t own your data. That is wrong most of the time. That has nothing to do with the integrity and honesty of the firm and its employees.
Our employees have to go through rigorous security checks to get hired (much more difficult than Obama ever did). We take our SAS 70 certification very seriously and have strong controls in place. We undergo the most difficult security audits from top tier financial companies around the world. If we lost our SAS 70 certification, we wouldn’t be able to continue to earn their business. Many other SaaS providers have similar safeguards and control sets in place and it behooves the consumer or enterprise buyer to understand who they are entrusting their data with.